We are so incredibly pleased to say that we have reached our fundraising target of £1million!

Fundraising started in 2004 and it was Blue Day 2016 that smashed the target.

It has been a long journey, with some very challenging and reflective points along the way, but it is fantastic to be able to announce that everyone’s hard work and dedication has got us to our milestone!

We have met some truly wonderful people over the years and have been consistently humbled by their support and generosity.

There are those that have supported us from day one and have been with us every step of the way, and others that never even met Tom but have jumped in with both feet and helped spread the message onto new people far and wide.

The Trust has been a positive focus for the family and Tom’s friends, and helped us pull through in those early days. It drew us all together as we strove to turn our sadness into something positive – we all wanted to keep Tom’s memory alive and try to cure the disease (Osteosarcoma) so other families don’t have to go through the pain.

Over the years we have all done and seen things we never could have imagined – throwing ourselves out of planes, abseiling down the Spinnaker Tower, meeting MPs and the Prime Minister to inform them of the disease, and seeing crowds of kids walking to school all dressed up for Blue Day!

It has been an incredible journey that the people of Portsmouth have taken with us – and it’s not over yet.

We are now researching the best way to invest the £1million and we will continue to fundraise as the people of Portsmouth continue to support us.

Keep an eye out on our website, Facebook and Twitter pages for upcoming events and news. And if you would like to have one of our orange collection tubs at your work – please get in touch!

The Tom Prince Cancer Trust sends you a million ‘thank yous’ from the bottom of our hearts xxx

That is the heartfelt message from the family of Tom Prince as they celebrate reaching the £1m target of the trust set up in his memory.

With the help of 10 Blue Days and the thousands of pounds donated by people in the Portsmouth area, the Tom Prince Cancer Trust has now raised £1,003,000 for research into bone cancer.

Tom’s parents Adele and Clinton, and his sister Emma, were all amazed to have reached the landmark figure after last month’s event.

Adele Prince, from Haslemere Road in Southsea, said:

"When we first realised, it was quite emotional. The money from this year’s Blue Day just kept coming in and it was all a bit surreal. We hoped that Blue Day would get us over the £1m and it did. We just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who took part in Blue Day or donated to the trust. We want to say a million thank yous.’"

Clinton Prince added:

"It is such a phenomenal amount of money to reach and it was emotional as a family to realise we had got there.

It feels amazing and we are so grateful to everyone. We could not have done it without the support and the help from the city."

Tom’s sister, Emma Prince, said: "The figure was an unbelievable sum when we first started. But we kept going and never doubted we would reach the target. When dad said about the £1m target and started telling everyone, it seemed so surreal. It did get quite difficult around the halfway mark but then it was almost like the home stretch. It has been very therapeutic and has brought us together as a family."

Simply saying thank you to the people of Portsmouth is not enough. Portsmouth is a brilliant city. It is the ideal community for something like this. It is small enough that you have a community feel to the city but it is big enough that when you organise an event like Blue Day, you can notice when people take part. We have done all of this for personal reasons but it’s lovely that complete strangers hear about the trust and want to do their part."

The Tom Prince Cancer Trust was set up in 2004 in memory of Tom who died on the eve of his 16th birthday from Osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. His family started the charity in the hope of reaching £1m, to be donated for research into the disease.

To help boost funding, the family started Blue Day in 2008 in conjunction with The News when Pompey reached the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium. Tom was a big Pompey fan and schools, businesses and community groups were encouraged to dress in blue.

When the club reached the final on May 17 against Cardiff City, a second Blue Day was held. Since then, the event has been organised on the Friday before Pompey’s final home game of the season.

In the past eight years, nearly 500 schools and businesses have worn blue, sold blue cakes and taken part in other blue-themed activities. Some have taken part every year while others have made one huge effort to raise as much cash as possible.

This year was the 10th Blue Day and it raised £13,154.

Clinton said:"We wanted Blue Day to push us over the target and this year’s event had one of the best vibes we’ve ever had. It was a great way to reach that £1m. Just seeing the level of support we get every year makes us want to do it again.

We will be taking more of a back seat when it comes to fundraising for the Trust but we still have events on. There will be people running for us in the Great South Run so the Trust will carry on."

The Trust is researching where to give their £1m donation. Tom’s parents Adele and Clinton along with his sister Emma want to make the right choice on where the money goes. For the past year, they have been looking at which group or groups to give the cash to. They want all of the money to go into research for Osteosarcoma, which Tom died from when he was 16. They said it is proving harder than they expected.

Adele said: "It is amazing how little research there actually is into this type of cancer. We want to make the right decision on where we donate the money. It is such a big amount and we owe it to the city and everyone who donated to pick the right place to donate it. We are making enquiries and meeting with researchers at hospitals and universities so we can make the best choice."

Clinton added:‘We do not want to give this money away lightly. We want to make sure it is in the right place. We have been looking for the last year or so, ever since we reached £900,000. But it has been harder than we thought. We want this money to make a difference."